Thanksgiving, coming on Thursday this week, is a mainly North American holiday (though other countries celebrate something similar) that falls on the 3rd Thursday of November in the United States and on the 2nd Monday in October in Canada.
The United States holiday was selected to be close to the date that the Mayflower landed in “the New World,” celebrating, I assume, that they did not die at sea, and successfully made it to North America.
In Canada it is celebrated for a different reason, and Thanksgiving is in October in Canada because it corresponds to the earlier harvest season in Canada’s colder climate. The holiday’s date was officially set to the second Monday in October in 1957 to ensure good weather for outdoor activities and travel before winter sets in.
Thanksgiving has traditionally been a day to get together with family to thank God for the blessing we have received in the past year, at least in the United States, which makes sense because it took the prior 3 months to get from England to Cape Cod, and back then, in wooden ships successful sea travel was an iffy situation at best.
Even though this is considered a secular holiday, it is a good time to get with friends and family to reminisce and get together and try to renew family closeness, especially for older families, empty nests, where the children are adults and moved away from home. We should also use this time to especially thank God for our family and the blessings he has given us in the past!
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 